92 PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS, 
The choice of scions is regulated by the same rules as the choice - 
of buds, only that in choosing scions some reference must also be had 
to the wood, which should have a sufficient thickness to keep it from 
getting dry easily, and to facilitate the operation of sloping the edges. 
The best buds are generally nearer the base of the shoot than the 
summit, but two or three scions may sometimes be got from a single 
shoot. No scion should be used when the buds upon it appear to 
have shrunk and lost their fulness, from having been laid by, and care 
should be taken on passing the bass ligament round the stock for the 
purpose of fixing the scions, that a piece of the bass be brought between 
the scions in such a manner as to protect the clift in the centre of the 
stock from the clay, and to leave the vacuum to be filled up with sap. 
Should any graft fail, which will be seen in a longer or shorter 
space of time, according to the weather (viz., in moist, dull, growing 
weather it will soon show, in that which is dry, windy, or cold there 
will be delay), you have still the resource of knocking off the clay and 
reserving for use the fresh buds which start from the stock, in which 
case cut the stock off immediately above them, and bud in the following 
autumn as usual. 
Grafting the Rose, however, leaves a worse wound to-heal over than 
budding, unless the scion be nearly the same size as the stock, or two 
or three scions of free-growing sorts be entered in the same graft ; there 
is also this disadvantage, that the portion of the scion that is entered 
in the stock is smooth, and consequently does not from time to time 
furnish new wood, whereas in budded Stocks, shoots occasionally 
spring from the inserted eye (and that sometimes years after it has 
taken), thus renewing the tree by preventing it from straggling, as 
well as giving it a more perfect and handsome appearance. 
The advantages of grafting are, that it clears your garden of wild- 
growing Stocks, promises fair for instant success, especially when the 
scions are from hardy sorts. 
ON PLUMBAGO CAPENSIS. 
BY COMMELINA. 
As there appears to be no reply to the query of E. G. in February 
Number, page 37, I take the liberty of offering the result of amateur 
culture of the Plumbago Capensis for some years in a greenhouse of 
very moderate warmth. 
KE. G. does not tell us at what time last year he pruned his Plumbago 
Capensis. If he shortened the shoots of the same season, he probably 
cut off all the wood from which flowers might have been expected. 
The plant will answer well in common greenhouse heat under the 
following management :—After it has flowered, and when amateurs 
are putting their house in winter order, the strage¢ling shoots should 
be shortened to within a few good eyes of the main stem. They will 
begin to push in February or March, and a little manure-water will 
then be of great use for some time. They require a good deal of peat 
in the soil, and good drainage. 
